Contact:

David Stuart, 277-0896 or Michael Padilla, 277-1816

October 26, 2001

UNM Associate Provost, Professor Stuart receives Honorary Degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College

Dr. David Stuart, associate provost for Academic Affairs and professor of Anthropology and Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico, received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from West Virginia Wesleyan College on Oct. 19.

The degree was awarded by unanimous vote of the faculty and Trustees of West Virginia Wesleyan College to explicitly recognize Stuart’s role in promoting access to higher education through programs at UNM.

In a citation from the college, Stuart was recognized for his passion for the cultural foundations of the American Southwest and the ancestral puebloan peoples.

“This is a great honor,” said Stuart. “I was the first student to graduate with a major in Anthropology earned in the state of West Virginia— a region where, at that time, relatively few went on to college.”

At UNM, Stuart created the Internet Pilot Project, the University’s first on-line instruction initiative. He created UNM’s evening, weekend and summer programs to better fit the academic requirements of New Mexico’s diverse population. He also initiated the Graduation Project which offers tuition assistance and special services to students who, for various reasons, left the University in good standing before graduation. This program has enabled over 600 former, “dropout students” to earn degrees from UNM— a success rate five times greater than predicted from national studies.

Stuart is a 1967 graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College. He earned a master of arts and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from UNM. Stuart has frequently pointed to Wesleyan Professor Emeritus, Dr. Fredrick Peterson, as the inspiration for his career as an anthropologist and educator. As a Wesleyan junior, he was encouraged to study at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. That experience led him to a lifelong engagement with the anthropological and archaeological foundations of the American Southwest. He is the author of numerous scholarly monographs, articles and books.

Three of his recent books include: Anasazi America, The Magic of Bandelier National Monument and Prehistoric New Mexico. In recent years he has been an invited lecturer at dozens of universities including the University of Edinburgh, London and the Sorbonne in Paris. Stuart has served on the board of directors of numerous anthropological and scholarly organizations. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honorary fraternity, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and is a Fellow in the American Anthropological Association. His biography appears in Who’s Who in the West, Who’s Who is America, and Who’s Who in the World.

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